So, is this just a dream...OR...

[RoninFox]

Star Trek had been off the air for a good while when they did The Motion Picture.  It resurected the franchise into a pop culture explosion.  MST3K could live again.

it's a bit off topic, but while Star Trek 1 was a box office success that was because Star Trek was incredibly popular already and in the long run did ressurect Jack. If Star Trek 2 hadn't been vastly superior then Trek as a movie franchise would have died horribly.

But those that have heard my wannabe riffs know how much I hated Star Trek 1 so...

[D.B. Barnes]

But those that have heard my wannabe riffs know how much I hated Star Trek 1 so...

Just give it up, you wannabe hack! Drop me a line when you ink a deal with Comedy Central.

[stansimpson]

But those that have heard my wannabe riffs know how much I hated Star Trek 1 so...

Just give it up, you wannabe hack! Drop me a line when you ink a deal with Comedy Central.

Give up now, ya big phoney!  PHONEY!!!

[LordZordec]

it's a bit off topic, but while Star Trek 1 was a box office success that was because Star Trek was incredibly popular already and in the long run did ressurect Jack. If Star Trek 2 hadn't been vastly superior then Trek as a movie franchise would have died horribly.

But those that have heard my wannabe riffs know how much I hated Star Trek 1 so...

This has been the spark that has ignited many an explosive battle on StarTrek.com.  ST TMP was important for making Star Trek commercially viable again, though it did nothing for the popularity/artistic quality of the franchise.  Those of us who have been Star Trek fans for decades but that hate the new film have been reminded of this many times.

In line with this discussion, I was never a fan of the non-Star Trek scifi that has been produced by former actors and directors of Star Trek.  Leonard Nimoy's stuff sucks, Johnathon Frakes aint got what it takes, and dont get me started on the horse crap of William Shatner.

In a similar manner, the MST3K empire has fallen, and the disparate powers that rose from its ashes will never be as strong or as great as that which was before.  As powerful and evil as Grand Asdmiral Thrawn was, he was never as strong as that which came before him.  (And if you get this reference, move out of your parent's basement and go get a girlfriend or something!)

[RoninFox]

it's a bit off topic, but while Star Trek 1 was a box office success that was because Star Trek was incredibly popular already and in the long run did ressurect Jack. If Star Trek 2 hadn't been vastly superior then Trek as a movie franchise would have died horribly.

But those that have heard my wannabe riffs know how much I hated Star Trek 1 so...

This has been the spark that has ignited many an explosive battle on StarTrek.com.  ST TMP was important for making Star Trek commercially viable again, though it did nothing for the popularity/artistic quality of the franchise.  Those of us who have been Star Trek fans for decades but that hate the new film have been reminded of this many times.
[/quote]

It's sole importance was in showing that people were already waiting to spend money on Star Trek to the point where they were at first blinded as to the fact that the movie was visually pretty but incredibly lacking in story and performance.

In line with this discussion, I was never a fan of the non-Star Trek scifi that has been produced by former actors and directors of Star Trek.  Leonard Nimoy's stuff sucks, Johnathon Frakes aint got what it takes, and dont get me started on the horse crap of William Shatner.

So you always saw other work in sci-fi by Star Trek actors to be kind of secondary imitations of their Star Trek work or something?

In a similar manner, the MST3K empire has fallen, and the disparate powers that rose from its ashes will never be as strong or as great as that which was before.  As powerful and evil as Grand Asdmiral Thrawn was, he was never as strong as that which came before him.  (And if you get this reference, move out of your parent's basement and go get a girlfriend or something!)

We're going to strongly disagree here.  While Cinematic Titanic might have a ways to go it is steadily improving, and Rifftrax has consistently been awesome for some time.  I think this is the best possible time to be a riff fan because so much great content is being produced.  While I loved and always will love those robot puppets I don't need them to laugh my ass off, the people who ran those puppets are doing a fine job without them.

Rifftrax and Cinematic Titanic are no Grand Admiral Thrawn, and they are in no danger of being artistically stabbed by one of their own guards.  (PS I've been out of the basement for about a decade now and I'm moving in with my girlfriend next week)

[D.B. Barnes]

Zordec. You should hit your knees and be thankful for eleven years of MST3K. And throw in RiffTrax and CT providing high-quality riffing as we speak, regardless of your nonsense opinion that these are some sort of watered-down version of the original. I'm tempted to say something like 'some people just can't appreciate what they had when they had it' but we've got the MST3K library to enjoy in addition to brand new stuff coming out all of the time. Again, best of both worlds.

[LordZordec]

Did I hurt some feelings? 

Did I ruffle some feathers?

Did I break some brains?

Well, go cry about it.  I dont like you and you cant make me.  I think I need to go hang out at the CT site more.

[stansimpson]

Ok, sorry... maybe I came off a little strong.  In my defense, your original post is pretty strong (if you care to go back and reread it).  Consider this a retraction.

[FordPrefect]

So, when is Mystery Science Theater 3000 coming back?

There is such a big fan base and so many incredible crappy movies left to riff.

We need you.  You complete us!!!  Star Wars has been ruined.  Star Trek is in the crapper.  Battlestar Galactica is no more.  Stargate is off the air until April.  WE HAVE NOTHING ELSE TO WATCH!!!  This is the darkest of dark times in scifi fandom history, and we need at least ONE well established franchise the stand errect again, rebooted and reenergized, and not suck!!!

Mike, Kevin, and Bill - we need YOU!!!  We need another Dr. Forrester, a dopy sidekick, a thin fiction involving the captivity of a test subject force fed crappy movies, the facade of theater seats, and most of all, the wiseass sidekick bots.

Dont feel like being pupeteers anymore?  Dont want to deal with sets, etc?  CGI the whole damn thing!  Its not the 90's anymore!  They can do that now for pretty cheap!

Help us MST3K - you are our only hope!!!

There are a number of unfortunate facts holding them back:

1) Everyone is busy with their own riffing projects already. Riffing projects that are made specifically for today's media environment. Riffing projects that fit their own individual creative needs.

2) There's no creative advantage in going back to TV in 2010. They would have to submit to executives who would micro-manage what they're doing. With Rifftrax and Cinematic Titanic, they own the product. The only advantage is that they'd make more money up front. But let's be realistic. In order for MST3K to come back as a TV series, they'd need a network to air it. None of the networks have been interested in airing the reruns since 2004, so I can't imagine they'd be interested in producing new episodes. They can't even release all the completed episodes on DVD due to the movie rights issues involved.

3) You basically have two people for every position. So part of it is, "Well, is it Mike, is it Joel? Is it Bill, is it Trace?" So they really couldn't have a big reunion of everybody. As Trace said, "The streams must never cross."

[FordPrefect]

Well, Cinematic Titanic was supposed to be the return of Mystery Science Theater 3000.  But an agreement couldn't be made between the CT guys and Jim Mallon.

So blame Jim Mallon.  If it wasn't for him we would have had , what is it? Nine new episodes of MST3K released so far. (Maybe 8 since you figure they wouldn't have redone Santa Claus Conquers The Martians.)  

That's assuming the whole thing didn't implode under the weight of the egos involved.  Maybe it's better that it didn't come to pass and we have Cinematic Titanic as a successful enterprise.

It sounds like Joel was trying to convince Jim they should do direct to video episodes of MST3K without Mike, Kevin, and Bill. I think that would have been a little awkward.  I'm kinda glad they decided to do something different instead. Besides, Joel thought the original theater seats were visually limiting for the expressions of the performers. That's part of what led to the creation of the Cinematic Titanic format.

[LordZordec]

Well, I just had an idea for how it could be done...it was right in front of my face the whole time.

Mystery Science Theater 3000 would have a nice home on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim lineup.  The demographics of viewers is right.  It would also be a good match for the format and flavor of Adult Swim.  In fact, it may be somewhat more liberating than having to produce a show suitable for general audiences on Saturday morning.  The humor could be more PG-13ish as it was in the movie.  And, like Aqua Teen Hunger Force and all of the other random, juvenile shows on Adult Swim, it could be totally computer generated, or mixture live action and CGI.

If nothing else, the 30 minute once a week show could be a vehicle for the promotion of the various riffing projects going on now, with plugs for RT and/or CT each week.

The thin fiction behind it?  Try this on for size.  After Mike and the Bots crash landed in the SOL and moved into an apartment right off the bus line, Mike falls on hard times with his job at a huge Wall Street bank and is laid off.  "Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony."  Mike and the bots end up working at a failing video store chain where there are no longer any customers, but every day from noon to 9PM, they must sit behind the counter and watch whatever intensly crappy movies the corporate office has remotely downloaded. (I worked at Circuit City for about three years, so this is a plot I know something about.)  How will he ever keep his sanity???  We all know the answer!!!
EDIT: I wonder if Adult Swim would be interested in airing reruns?  They have done lots of other random stuff from TV history, and per above, its the right demographics.

[RoninFox]

Well, I just had an idea for how it could be done...it was right in front of my face the whole time.

Mystery Science Theater 3000 would have a nice home on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim lineup.  The demographics of viewers is right.  It would also be a good match for the format and flavor of Adult Swim.  In fact, it may be somewhat more liberating than having to produce a show suitable for general audiences on Saturday morning.  The humor could be more PG-13ish as it was in the movie.  And, like Aqua Teen Hunger Force and all of the other random, juvenile shows on Adult Swim, it could be totally computer generated, or mixture live action and CGI.

If nothing else, the 30 minute once a week show could be a vehicle for the promotion of the various riffing projects going on now, with plugs for RT and/or CT each week.

The thin fiction behind it?  Try this on for size.  After Mike and the Bots crash landed in the SOL and moved into an apartment right off the bus line, Mike falls on hard times with his job at a huge Wall Street bank and is laid off.  "Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony."  Mike and the bots end up working at a failing video store chain where there are no longer any customers, but every day from noon to 9PM, they must sit behind the counter and watch whatever intensly crappy movies the corporate office has remotely downloaded. (I worked at Circuit City for about three years, so this is a plot I know something about.)  How will he ever keep his sanity???  We all know the answer!!!
EDIT: I wonder if Adult Swim would be interested in airing reruns?  They have done lots of other random stuff from TV history, and per above, its the right demographics.

in other words MST3K with the plot of the Movie Asylum

[TTYT]

EDIT: I wonder if Adult Swim would be interested in airing reruns?  They have done lots of other random stuff from TV history, and per above, its the right demographics.

There's no way in hell Adult Swim is gonna air a 90-minute show. They rarely run movies as it is. It'd take away from all the shorter, more money-making shows they air already. And even if they did somehow decide to air it, they'd probably stick it at 3am anyways so said shorter shows can still run at 10pm and such, respectively.

The most major obstacle to reruns of MST3K is not necessarily the show, though. It's the rights to the movies within. The rising cost of those rights was one of the major factors that led to the show being canned for the final time, and the rights issues have still been a problem for some episodes on the DVD front (see: Vol. 10.1 getting pulled because of the distribution rights mess over Godzilla Vs. Megalon). If the show were rerunned, you'd probably only get to see the public domain movies, with probably a few more movies where the rights have already been secured for a long amount of time.

Face it: The show is not coming back, and will never come back. Enjoy it on DVD and hulu, and enjoy the new riffing projects.

[Minnesota]

There will probably be a very limited reunion at some point in the future. There is a big fanbase and It would be a good way to promote Rifftrax.

[stansimpson]

There will probably be a very limited reunion at some point in the future. There is a big fanbase and It would be a good way to promote Rifftrax.

There was at Comic-Con for the 20th Anniversary.  I guess you mean another one tho.